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Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

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Africa / South Africa

South Africa shows democracy in action

Published by The i paper (17th June, 2024) It is 30 years since the citizens of South Africa  defied doom-mongers with a largely peaceful transition from apartheid to […]

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Africa / Europe / Russia / South Africa / Ukraine

South Africa isn’t neutral on Ukraine

Published by UnHerd (7th June, 2023) “Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division among us: between those who cherish democracy and those who […]

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Africa / South Africa

A powerful voice for equality, peace and reconciliation

Published by The i paper (27th December, 2021) I never took much notice of Desmond Tutu until one day in July 1984 when we both received degrees from […]

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Africa / Aid / South Africa

Shame of Bono’s charity bullies

Published by The Mail on Sunday (11th March, 2018) Workers at an organisation founded by U2 singer Bono have been subjected to a ‘toxic’ culture of bullying and […]

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Africa / Ethiopia / South Africa / Zimbabwe

Winds of change blowing across Africa

Published by The ipaper (19th February, 2018) Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma share some things in common. Both were key figures in the anti-apartheid struggle with the African […]

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Africa / Environment / Policy / South Africa

Water wars as day zero looms

Published by Mail on Sunday (18th February, 2018) The vista could hardly be more barren or forbidding – a parched sandy landscape, baking beneath the afternoon sun, broken […]

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Africa / Arts / Disability / Music / South Africa

The heartbeat of South Africa

Published by High Life (8th January, 2015) As we drive into Ivory Park, the sprawling township that clings to rolling hills on the edge of Johannesburg, Aero Manyelo […]

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Africa / Arts / Books / Somalia / South Africa

One refugee’s tale of hope from misery

Published by The Observer (4th January, 2014) A Man of Good Hope by Jonny Steinberg (Jonathan Cape) Asad Abdullahi was eight years old when he awoke one day […]

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Africa / South Africa

Obesity: Africa’s new crisis

Published by The Observer Magazine (21st September, 2014) When the first McDonald’s restaurant opened almost two decades ago in Johannesburg, a teenage boy named Thando Tshabalala was among […]

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Africa / Aid / Health / Policy / South Africa

South Africa’s obesity crisis: the shape of things to come?

Published by Mosaic Science (9th September, 2014) When the first McDonald’s restaurant opened almost two decades ago in Johannesburg, a teenage boy named Thando Tshabalala was among the […]

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Africa / Rwanda / South Africa

Assassins linked to Kagame regime

Published by The Independent (30th August, 2014) Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa had only been in South Africa for a few months when, returning home from a shopping trip with […]

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Africa / Rwanda / South Africa

Kagame’s enemies have a strange habit of dying

Published in The Independent (January 3rd, 2014) Patrick Karegeya knew Paul Kagame well. The pair went to school together, worked alongside each other in Ugandan intelligence and then […]

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

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